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Employee Relations

Track all discipline and check for fairness

01/13/2013
Do you monitor all discipline and make sure employees who break the same rule suffer similar consequences? It’s the best way to win discrimination lawsuits.

Same incident, two punishments: Be able to explain why one was harsher

01/13/2013
You don’t always have to punish two employees who break the same rule exactly alike. Just make sure you explain the difference for the record. That kind of documentation will prove crucial if an employee decides to sue.

Be prepared to explain bonus before discharge

01/13/2013
Do you hand out periodic bonuses to employees? If so, be sure you can clearly describe how you calculate bonuses and what em­­ployees need to do to receive one. If you must later terminate an employee—and claim poor performance was the reason—she may point to the bonus as proof you fired her for discriminatory reasons.

N.Y. High Court rules on disciplinary definitions for public employees

01/13/2013
Although public employers may be aware of their obligation to provide certain types of employees with an opportunity for a hearing before imposing discipline (such as a written reprimand), the line be­­tween a nondisciplinary counseling memorandum and a disciplinary reprimand is not always clear.

Discipline meetings: 4 tips for doing them right

01/11/2013
If they’re doing their jobs, HR and managers must periodically have “the talk” with problem employees. How this meeting is conducted can mean the difference between turning around a marginal employee and opening the organization to costly litigation.

To err is human: Fear of failure at work

01/08/2013
Wonder what your organization’s staff is stressing over? For 28% of employees in a new Accountemps survey, it’s making a mistake at work.

10 ways to overcome ‘negative vibes’ among your staff

01/07/2013
A hard-core negative attitude that starts with just one employee can quickly infect an entire department (or a whole company) if the manager doesn’t rein it in quickly. Here are 10 tips for confronting em­ployees whose negative behavior has begun to affect co-workers and the company:

Business students: We want to work for Google!

01/04/2013
For the fourth year, Google tops the list of companies business students would most like to work for, according to “World’s Most Attractive Employers 2012” report. Students cited Google’s great benefits and culture of innovation.

Use discipline record to select employees for RIF

01/01/2013
Absent a union contract or other established rule, you don’t have to use seniority to decide which em­­ployee should be laid off. You can use any objective measure.

When performance slips, don’t let past good reviews affect decision-making

01/01/2013

Some employees do well for years, only to have their performance slip. There may come a time when you have to let the employee go. But what about all those glowing evaluations from years past? If you can prove that the employee’s performance has genuinely declined, those earlier evaluations won’t cause any trouble in court.